COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



rhinocerotidae and hyaenidae Professor Huxley 

 says, " it is indeed a conceivable (?) supposition 

 that every species of rhinoceros and every spe- 

 cies of hyaena, in the long succession of forms 

 between the Miocene and the present species, 

 was separately constructed out of dust, or out 

 of nothing, by supernatural power ; but until I 

 receive distinct evidence of the fact, I refuse to 

 run the risk of insulting any sane man by sup- 

 posing that he seriously holds such a notion." 

 It thus appears that the argument from 

 " missing links," which to the general reader 

 may appear so obviously fatal to the Darwinian 

 theory, is to the student of palaeontology by no 

 means alarming. Our brief survey of the facts 

 in the case has shown ms firsts that transitional 

 varieties are always likely to have been less nu- 

 merous in individuals than the well-defined 

 species which they serve to connect ; secondly, 

 that the geologic eras which have left in the 

 rocks the record of their organic life have been 

 usually the eras in which variation and extinc- 

 tion have been least rapid, and in which ac- 

 cordingly transitional varieties have been least 

 numerous ; and thirdly^ that in spite of all these 



aberrant types, and the connection between man and the 

 anthropoid apes is to be sought much lower down, — perhaps 

 near the point of departure of the anthropoid apes from the 

 lower monkeys and lemurs. See the anatomical evidence very 

 well presented in Mr. Mivart's recent work on Man and Apes. 

 62 



